Powered pallet jacks, also known as electric pallet trucks, walkies, single or double pallet jacks, or power jacks, allow lifting and moving heavy and stacked pallets or other loads. Typically, such powered pallet jacks (hereinafter referred to as a “pallet jack” for simplicity) are electrically motorized tools having an electrical motor and a platform for carrying and lifting loads.
While pallet jacks are often used in warehouses, storages, factories, the pallet jacks may also be transported to job sites by a host vehicle such as a trailer or truck. A typical pallet jack runs on electric batteries and when the batteries are low the pallet jack has to be moved to a charging station to recharge. This results in considerable down time and driver standby time. Currently, charging of the pallet jacks while transporting to a job site is not possible because the standard pallet jack battery voltage is 24 volts while the standard host vehicle voltage is 12 volts. Consequently, pallet jacks have to be frequently moved to remote charging stations for charging.